It’s always fun to see companies that REALLY get into the Holiday spirit…

… Especially when they give stuff away — and the WishList Member team is doing just that for all their WishList Member customers, new AND old.

Anyone who buys WishList Member before Dec. 31st, 2011 will get a whole bunch of extra gifts (valued at $400+) at no extra charge.

This gift package includes:

1) 1000+ Custom Drawn Icons
2) Custom Membership Site Graphics
3) Our Top 3 Kick-Butt Plugins
4) 3-Module Membership Site Basics Course

It’s an awesome package and people are loving it.

…BUT…

This gift package is only available for those who purchase BEFORE December 31st, 2011 @ 11pm PST.

So, if you are planning to start a membership site in 2012, this is the time to pick up the RIGHT software for the job… WishList Member.

Cheers,

P.S. WishList Member is what I use to run my own membership site on Affiliate Blogger PRO.

If you’re like me, the approach of Christmas means that you’re already thinking about how to improve your Internet business next year.

And ‘improvement’ often means saving money on your business dealings.

To help you do just that, here are some pretty sweet deals that I’ve found that are just for Internet marketers.

1. BlueHost Web Hosting

Usually $6.95, Bluehost’s rate is down to $5.95 per month and here’s what you get:

• Unlimited Domain Hosting
• Unlimited GB Hosting Space
• Unlimited GB File Transfer
• Unlimited E-mail Accounts
• Free Domain
• Free Site Builder w/ templates
• Secure Shell, SSL, FTP, Stats
• CGI, Ruby (RoR), Perl, PHP, MySQL
• $75 Free Google Credit
• 99.9% Network Uptime Guarantee

Seriously, if you don’t have your own domain name and hosting yet, get it NOW with this incredible deal. INCLUDES a FREE domain registration.

Or, buy someone else a domain name and hosting for a year or two, i.e. your nephew… which is what I did for our godson when he was born.

2. Wishlist Member

Thinking of starting a membership site in 2012? Look no farther than Wishlist Member — which is what I use at Affiliate Blogger PRO. For a limited time, the WishList team is
giving away over $400+ in gifts to their customers. The offer ends December 31st, 2011 @ 11pm PST. So if you order WishList Member, you’ll get a bunch of very cool “extras” – including custom drawn icons, graphics, plugins and
more.

3. SBI! Site Build it!

SBI! is an all-in-1 step-by-step system of process-and-software that builds thriving businesses. Their new Blockbuilder (BB2) and Site Designer (a 3.5 million dollar upgrade to SBI!), is a slick, seriously advanced site designer and builder.

Their Christmas deal is a Buy one, get one free holiday special that ends December 25th, 2011 at midnight. Includes a 90 Day Money-Back Satisfaction & Success Guarantee. If you want all the bells and whistles included (not a DIY project), SBI! is the way to go.)

4. Trend Micro

Protect your business / computer investments!! Get savings of 40% off on all of Trend Micro’s best-selling products until January 5, 2011. Includes Trend Micro Antivirus +, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security and Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security. NOTE: Trend Micro is the antivirus service that I use personally.

5. Underground Seminar

Give yourself the gift of a great Internet marketing conference this year. Yanik Silver is hosting his 8th Underground Seminar and this year will be no less dazzling than the rest. Previous speakers include Bob Parsons (CEO of GoDaddy), Tony Hsieh (CEO of http://netprofitstoday.com/go/zappos), Tim Ferris (Tim Ferris – Multiple New York Times Best-Selling author including the The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich), Gary Vaynerchuk (New York Times and Wall Street Journal Best-Selling author) and yours truly.

The event is ALWAYS sold out, and getting in early gets you a discount and extra bonuses. This is one conference I do recommend for those who want to make the most of their Internet marketing businesses. Order NOW and you’ll save 40% … The Regular Price $3495, Today it’s $1995.

Oh and don’t forget, I’m keeping my Academy / Affiliate Blogger PRO pricing down at a ridiculously all-time low until the New Year as well. So if you want to get in on that deal, sign up before it goes away forever!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Do you live in a State affected by the affiliate nexus tax? Wondering how to replace your Amazon commissions? You should take a look at Skimlinks.

Based in the U.K., Skimlinks is a technology service that helps affiliates monetize their blog content by converting normal product links from over 15,500 merchants across 27 affiliate networks (including Amazon) into Skimlinks affiliate links so you can earn a commission every time a purchase is made.

BTW, there are currently 308 merchants listed under the book & magazines category at Skimlinks, including:

• Amazon (.com, .uk, .de, .ca and more)
• Barnes & Noble
• Biblio
• Alibris
• Borders
• eBooks.com

What is interesting is that Skimlinks lists the average commission rate through Amazon.com at 8%.

Getting started with Skimlinks

Setup is super simple.

You just add the Skimlink basic javascipt code above the tag on your blog. Then you place deep-links to merchant products within your content and Skimlinks converts them on-the-fly. Links that can not be converted into affiliate links will send visitors to the URL as set.

Moreover, Skimlinks only works on natural links, so you don’t have to worry about the Skimlinks’ code overwriting existing affiliate links.

Too, you can choose to let Skimlinks work on a site-wide basis, or on selected pages only — it’s up to you.

In addition to Skimlinks, they offer Skimwords, which recognizes product references in editorial and user-generated content, and automatically turns these into shopping links that can generate commissions.

Basic affiliate commissions are 75% of what the merchant pays Skimlinks.

More than 700,000 publishers are currently using the service on their websites.

And the service is getting even better. Skimlinks announced today that it had acquired content monetization firm Atma Links and will merge the Atma Links technology with its own affiliate marketing platform to offer its publishers and partners the first real-time in-text product identification and price comparison service.

Watch the video below for an overview of the service, then signup for Skimlinks!

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

If you’ve been looking for a way to cut down on the amount of money you spend and make your savings account grow, then this eBook is one you must read!

Even if your paycheck is small and your expenses are high, this in-depth eBook will teach you how to save thousands of dollars per year.

In this economy, everyone feels like they don’t have enough money, but way too many bills.   Just look at the headlines.  Unemployment rates are skyrocketing, fuel prices are about to go up…   People are looking for ways to save the money.

The trouble is, though, there’s not a lot of ready information online that tells you how to save.  You can find a tip here, a tip there, and old strategies like the envelope system.   But if those worked, you wouldn’t still be searching the Internet.

It’s almost impossible to find one resource that will give someone who wants to cut their spending and save money a detailed plan to do so.   For example, how can you save money and still eat out?  Can you save money on health insurance — if so, how?    How can you afford a new car and still be able to stick money in the bank?

Well, there’s good news.   Financial expert Brandon Lamb has written an eBook that answers all your questions and gives you a detailed plan to save money in every aspect of your life.

From car payments, to utilities, to groceries, and even down to health insurance and medical care, Brandon gives easy to use strategies that will have you putting more money in the bank than you ever thought possible.

The best part of this book is that it doesn’t tell you to quit spending all together.  Instead, it gives wise strategies and methods that you can use to spend more wisely.

This book has become a Bible for so many people, and it’s not surprising.  Other savings strategies you may have tried in the past never worked because the ideas were good in theory, but not in the long term.   Brandon’s book will guide you through the next twenty years of your life and make you wonder why you hadn’t been able to save money before.

If you want to save money and cut how much money you spend, Brandon’s book “Slash Your Spending” is a must-read.

Here’s a list of holidays and observances for the current year.

Use it to help you plan your publishing schedule.

For example, you know that Valentine’s Day is always on February 14th. Write a post now to wish your readers a happy Valentine’s Day and schedule it to be published on that date.

PLUS plan all your promotions for that day and post them well in advance!!

You will find that these types of preparations make your workload over the course of the year SO much easier!

Want an early Christmas present? Treat yourself to the “Adsense $100k Blueprint” – a new product that can help make the New Year your best one yet – and it comes with a bonus gift for my readers.

“A100k” is a detailed, step-by-step blueprint for building a real, sustainable six-figure Adsense business, but perhaps more importantly, it is a virtual gold mine for Internet marketers whose business relies on search engine traffic.

While designed around Adsense, it provides clear and complete instructions for how to develop and rank websites and get free traffic, for any type of  business.

Combined with the authors’ different but very effective approach to niche and keyword research, you get a virtual roadmap for building and ranking niche websites, which can be applied to affiliate marketing just as effectively as Adsense. (NOTE: I LOVE their approach to niche selection. It goes against traditional thinking, much as my own methods do.)

The product includes a 100 page e-book, 10 how-to videos, some additional software, and an exhaustive compendium of free marketing resources called the “Ultimate IM Toolchest”.

What I like about the “Blueprint” itself is that it is based on real experience rather than theory. The author has spent nearly 2 years testing & optimizing his own business, and then distilled it into an easy-to-follow guide that shows you how to copy the business.

I also appreciate that it is very “white hat” and sustainable – it isn’t likely that any new Google updates or changes are going to jeopardize this way of building an online business.

That said, this isn’t a “magic bullet” – they don’t exist. It will take a commitment of time and effort, but any real business model will.

If you’re looking for a complete, workable business model, or the “keys” to rankings & free traffic, treat yourself to “Adsense $100k Blueprint”. As a special favor to my readers, the author has offered an exclusive bonus, lifetime membership to their members-only forum (normally $17/month) where you can get ongoing direct support, extra tips & goodies, and interact with others doing the same thing. You’ll also get an exclusive extra that you can take advantage of right away, his report entitled “Profiting Quickly & Easily From High-Value Keywords“.

Check out “Adsense $100k Blueprint” now.

Thinking about setting up a membership site?

aMember PRO is a flexible membership and subscription management PHP script that we use to manage payments and our affiliate program on PrivateLabelCentral.com.

aMember has support for numerous payment systems including:

• 1ShoppingCart
• 2Checkout
• Authorize.Net
• BeanStream
• CCBill
• Clickbank
• E-Gold
• ePassPorte
• Google Checkout
• Multicards
• NoChex
• PayPal
• PaySystems
• Plimus
• Probilling
• VeriSign PayFlow
• and many more…

Amember PRO also allows you to manage your users manually – without any 3rd party payment system.

aMember Pro also supports integration with more than 50 third-party content management services and autoresponder services such as:

• vBulletin
• Joomla
• WordPress
• Aweber

aMember is a good membership software solution if you plan to sell digital subscriptions and downloadable products such as ebooks.

If you’ve purchased digital products, you’ve no doubt seen the aMember software in use by other marketers. The interface looks like that shown in the screenshot below (trade out the lilac for a light grey) on the signup page for our Hobbies: Scrapbooking Article Pack.

I am NOT a geek, yet I found the installation easy. Product setup was a wee bit trickier, but still entirely manageable with a little bit of help from their technical support which offered timely responses.

The good news is that installation of the software is now free with the PRO version.

Go on, check out the demo and download the free trial of Amember PRO.

Cheers,

P.S. They also offer a 30-day no-hassle moneyback guarantee, so you have nothing to lose if you buy it and find it doesn’t perfectly suit your needs.

The following article and video were submitted by Rosalind Gardner’s Academy member, Mark Washburn, who was keen to share what is undoubtedly the best solution to date for complete and easy WordPress backups (including blog, membership software, forum and more…) and WordPress blog cloning.

Read Mark’s review of the WPTwin plugin and watch the video below to see how simple it is to use.

I’ve made a point to back up my WordPress database and files routinely over time. These days you can’t afford not to because sites get hacked, code get’s messed up, or databases run into problems. Any one of these things can take a site out of commission and and the logical remedy is to run regular backups.

In theory, restoring a site from a back up shouldn’t be too hard. You save the database and some primary folders that contain the theme and plugins, install WordPress again,and the rest should be easy…unless something goes wrong… and a few weeks ago, something went wrong for me.

I decided to move a fairly small WordPress site from one host to another. I followed the normal routine and then found, when I launched the site at the new location, things got really screwed up.

Somewhere along the way a forum lost all of it’s content, many of the plugins didn’t activate properly, and my theme got screwed up…so basically I found myself having to set the site up all over again. I was really disappointed.

Nevertheless, I kept thinking about the fact that so many other things are incredibly easy with WordPress, but backups continue to be kind of “primitive“. There are a handful of backup plugins that you can install and use but some haven’t been updated in quite awhile and others end up being helpful but they aren’t a complete solution.

A few days later I shared my frustration with a friend of mine and he told me about a new program called WPTwin that is designed to easily and quickly clone or replicate an entire WordPress site from top to bottom. I have to admit, he piqued my interest, but I didn’t buy the software right away.

A few days later however, I went back into that WordPress site I had tried to relocate. I wasn’t even close to getting everything back to it’s original form. It was going to take at least a few hours, if not days of work and it made me sick to even think about all of that.

And then I remembered something one of my online mentors once told me. He said:

“You have to spend the majority of your time being focused and working on things that matter most, and if you’re trying to make money online, you better be focused on generating great content, finding great affiliate offers or products, and building good incoming links for traffic…everything else is minor and usually a distraction!”

And he’s right. You don’t make a dime endlessly tweaking (i.e. fighting with code) to bring a theme to perfection, or while you’re constantly researching that next great article that you can’t seem to get written, or…doing the mundane work of backing up and hopefully restoring a website should the need arise.

With that said, backing up your work is critical, so you might say I finally saw the light of common sense, and bought WPTwin. If it had the potential to save me days of unnecessary work and helped me avoid future frustrations, it was worth my time to test it out!

After getting the program, I read through the instructions and found the replication process to be very simple.

The program contains two php files. The first one is uploaded into the root folder of the WordPress site that you want to clone. Once uploaded, you simply access the url of the php file page and click one button. Usually within about 30 seconds (large sites may take longer and the system has been tested on sites as large as 4 gigs), you’ll have a replication file that’s available for downloading to your computer.

Using the example of moving a website from one host to another, you would simply set up a new WordPress install on the new hosting account. Upload the replication file along with another small php file which contains the deployment code into the root folder of the WordPress install. Then by simply visiting the url of this php file, entering the email that you provided when purchasing WPTwin, and clicking a final button to activate the process, within another 30 seconds or less you’ll have a fully functioning, identical clone to your original site!

After testing the process on one of my sites, I continued to back up and test the deployment of a handful of my other WordPress based sites. Several of these included unique plugins such as the Wishlist Member membership plugin and the Simple Press forum plugin. And in every case the process worked flawlessly!

All content, comments, videos, pictures, settings, login information, and plugins (and their settings) are duplicated precisely. The only thing you’ll likely want to change is in the general settings folder of WordPress where you can change the title of the new site.

The instructions that come with WPTwin are clear and easy to understand but you’ll probably only need to read through them once. It also comes with video tutorials that cover every step in the implementation process should you ever need them. Customer support has been very good at responding to questions in a timely manner and according to them, several updates are planned in future releases, one of which includes a scheduling module to create automatic backups as often as you need them.

With all of my WordPress sites now backed up and secure I’m confident that I won’t ever have to go through the recent turmoil of rebuilding a site from scratch again.

For well under $100 WPTwin has turned out to be one of the best investments I’ve made in software in several years. I simply can’t recommend it highly enough. It finally brings the WordPress back up process up to speed and makes it so easy that anyone can do it without fear and frustration.

I’ve uploaded, activated and reviewed a number of different plugins and software applications intended to increase your subscribers – most of which I’ve never told you about.

But Subscribers Magnet is different — in a VERY good way… and the reason I’m telling you about it NOW, is because it is 30% off until but only until October 1st.

First things first, ‘Subscribers Magnet’ is a WordPress plugin, which makes it super easy to install and activate.

See the graphic up and to the right?

Yes, the plugin automatically recognizes and fills in your visitor’s name and email address to encourage signups. You have the option to add your opt-in form all over your blog, and actually ‘seduce’ your visitors to join your list, in a very friendly manner.

Watch this video to see Subscribers Magnet in action.

You can add the form to your WordPress footer or within the post itself.

Better still, you can add a subscription box to the footer and decide how often it will show.

(You might be seeing the footer bar right now.)

Plus, you have full control over the look, feel, location and functionality of your forms and it works with AWeber (my favorite), GetResponse, and other major autoresponders.

The developers suggest that Subscribers Magnet could actually triple your sign-up rate almost overnight, without you having to get more blog visitors than you’re already getting. (I WILL be testing that statement and letting you know how it works. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to report my results before their discount offer has ended. No problem though – they do offer a money-back guarantee).

Suppose the assertion is true and you get 100 unique visitors to your blog on a daily basis and receive a 5% conversion ratio, meaning 5 subscribers. If you use Subscribers Magnet, you should get 15 subscribers instead, from the same amount of traffic.

Just think about it!

If you’re all about the list and optimizing it for better performance (which really should be one of your first priorities), you will love this plugin!

Here’s my caveat. You should NOT buy ‘Subscribers Magnet’…

1. If, once you finish watching the video, you still don’t see its real value
2. If you receive less than 10 visitors a day to your blog
3. If you don’t plan to actually test-drive it on your blog.

On the other hand, you should BUY Subscribers Magnet:

1. If you want to double, triple and even quadruple your subscription rate ‘overnight’ – and do it over and over again, day and night, week after week, month after month!
2. If you want optimum list conversion and to get maximum value from your blog’s real estate by placing your opt-in form in strategic, non-intrusive locations, where anybody can see it.

P.S. Here are some other amazing features that I haven’t found on other subscriber plugins:

• A. You can show the signup form in your footer bar in a highly visible but not obnoxious way. Very good for turning first time visitors into subscribers.
• B. You can also end “automatic” and highly-personalized ‘thank you messages’ by email on the first occasion someone comments on your blog. Think of the possibilities! In that message you can invite them to join your newsletter or rss feed. It’s another “friendly” reason to create trust with your readers and get them on your list, in a non intrusive way!
• C. Plus, there’s unique tracking available for each subscription method – you will know which forms perform better than others; with this new found knowledge, you’ll be able to skyrocket your sign-up rate like never before!

P.P.S. Download your copy of Subscribers Magnet PLUGIN now and GET a free copy of “Multiple Hit Strategy” with your purchase. This bonus item is a step-by-step guide detailing how to build your list FAST with this proprietary “multiple hit strategy”.

I’ve had the WP Shopping Pages plugin for quite awhile now and absolutely love it.

I use it to auto-post products — mostly romantic movie DVD’s from Amazon — to my dating blog on a regular basis.

Actually, the WP Shopping Pages plugin has been a real blessing.

I haven’t been that keen to write about dating for awhile now, yet with the auto-posts my subscribers still receive updates through my Aweber blog broadcasts on a regular basis and therefore keep returning to visit the site. By result, my Google Analytics stats show no real decline in traffic despite the fact that I’ve done very little work on the site for months.

There are a couple of issues with the plugin that I’ve noticed just recently, however.

Despite selecting Skip Products if No Description Found in the options, one post came up empty as shown in the screenshot below.

Egads! The lack of a description doesn’t exactly compel the reader to click through the link to buy the product. Not only that, but can you imagine what would happen to your subscriber numbers if all the posts for a month or more showed up like that? Bar the thought!

Another smaller issue I have with WP Shopping Pages is that the descriptions show up as one very long paragraph, instead of being separated into smaller, easy to read chunks.

Here’s an example of how a post will show up if I don’t edit it. And here’s how I edited the blog post for the movie Titanic in just a couple of seconds.

Much better, eh?

So, although automation is great, you still have to invest a little bit of time and effort to make sure your blog doesn’t come across looking like a ‘splog’.

Put those autoposts into draft mode and make them reader-friendly by adding paragraph breaks. Delete those without descriptions. Last, but certainly not least — add your own commentary about the product to avoid duplicate content penalties.

Learn more about WP Shopping Pages.

Watch my video or visit the WP Shopping Pages Plugin site.